Java RMI [Paperback]

William Grosso (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1565924525 | ISBN-13: 978-1565924529 | Publication Date: October 15, 2001 | Edition: 1st

Java RMI contains a wealth of experience in designing and implementing Java's Remote Method Invocation. If you're a novice reader, you will quickly be brought up to speed on why RMI is such a powerful yet easy to use tool for distributed programming, while experts can gain valuable experience for constructing their own enterprise and distributed systems.

With Java RMI, you'll learn tips and tricks for making your RMI code excel. The book also provides strategies for working with serialization, threading, the RMI registry, sockets and socket factories, activation, dynamic class downloading, HTTP tunneling, distributed garbage collection, JNDI, and CORBA. In short, a treasure trove of valuable RMI knowledge packed into one book.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William Grosso is the former Chief Architect / Director of Quality Assurance and current Vice President of Technical Services for Hipbone Incorporated. He is the author of Java RMI (available from O'Reilly and Associates) and a co-author of Java Enterprise Best Practices (also available from O'Reilly and Associates). He is one of the founders of Seruku, is on the program committee of the International Semantic Web Conference, and frequently volunteers at SDForum (where he serves on the Board of Directors and helps to run the Emerging Technology SIG). A former mathematician, he got into programming because it seemed like easy money. He got into distributed computing because he noticed that client-server gurus got the big bucks. And then he started programming in Java because he figured that's where the REAL money was. Having learned the error of his ways, he decided to become management and write books instead. When not working, programming, or writing, he spends most of his time hiking and going to the theatre. You can find out more about him at wgrosso.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 572 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (October 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565924525
• ISBN-13: 978-1565924529
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #855,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent introduction to RMI, April 13, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Java RMI (Paperback)

I bought this book a few days ago, and I'm satisfied with it.

If it's an introduction to RMI that you're looking for, then you will not regret your choice: the author gives a good overview of RMI and the related topics, like sockets, streams, serialization and threads. As a "side effect", sometimes this book is a bit off topic, especially during the long description of what threads are and how to use them.
I would have liked to read something more about RMI over IIOP.

It looked correct and clear in the explanation, and I must dissent from a previous reviewer:
1) the author does not write that java.io.File is not serializable, but that its serialization is not obvious and it explains why;
2) arrays are really not serializable because they do not implement the Serializable interface (just check the java API).

The book is not intended for the advanced RMI programmer: I think Java.RMI from AW (Pitt-McNiff) is more suited for this purpose.
In conclusion, not the best book about RMI, but a satisfactory introduction.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent RMI and distributed computing wisdom, December 2, 2002

By 

jTAYEB (France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Java RMI (Paperback)

I personally have a very high opinion of the technical level
and presentation of this book. The author gives enough substance
to all RMI components as well as enough how-to information for
a typical TMI deployment. What I apperciated most however is
that it's replete with small pieces of wisdom on distributed
systems design (e.g., scalability) that were eye-opening. It
also illustrates the distributed way of thinking through teaching to ask the right question at design phase.
It's true that it talks about more than strict RMI but that's hardly a shortcoming.
The reader wanting to see onl RMI stuff will find his way by picking the right chapters (you can't miss them).
Overall, excellent technical depth, good job.

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a great book for programmers of all levels, November 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Java RMI (Paperback)

Many books on specific technologies fall into one of the following categories: a reference book (merely reformatting the javadocs), a simplistic tutorial (is there already a "RMI for Dummies"?), or a guide strictly for those already knowledgable on the subject. Java RMI is not a mere substitute for the javadoc, instead it manages to teach distributed programming (RMI is merely the platform used) and share the author's experience in this field in a way appropriate for both newcomers and old hands alike.

In the manner of a mathematician, Grosso starts from basic principles and builds one level at a time. He assumes the reader is familiar with java programming generally but assumes nothing about network or distributed programming. So, he starts by laying the foundation of streams and sockets. (Obviously, some readers may skim or skip these chapters.) With tons of example code throughout the book, in one early chapter he builds an example of a distributed application using sockets directly instead of RMI. Then, introducing RMI, he reimplements the example using RMI to demonstrate the advantages of this approach. Preferring not to depend on other sources, he also includes an excellent treatment of threading, in which even those experienced writing multi-threaded software will find useful advice, such as some of the patterns to reduce the granularity of locks needed for synchronization (as always, with explicit examples).

Throughout the book Grosso considers the example of a bank ATM machine. Going far beyond just teaching the mechanics of using RMI to write distributed software, Grosso emphasizes the questions and tradeoffs that must be addressed to design good distributed software. (Again, this is why i say the book addresses distributed programming in general, while also covering the specifics of RMI.) The ATM example is sufficiently robust to apply all the lessons.

Overall, this book is a tremendous success, managing to treat distributed programming and the details of RMI in a book appropriate for programmers of all levels. The often conversational style of the text makes for easy reading, and the wealth of example code makes the lessons very concrete. I highly recommend this book.